Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 7 years ago October 9, 2016

Bit of a waiting game

Summary

Light snow will accumulate at high elevations between Monday night and Wednesday, with another chance for a bit of snow over the weekend. A stronger storm is possible during the third week of October, around October 19th-ish.

Details

Last week’s natural snow and colder temperatures have allowed many resorts to begin their snowmaking efforts.

Abasin and Loveland are typically the first to open, and each resort has been cranking their snow guns as much as possible.

Abasin:

Loveland:

While temperatures during the next 7 days will be generally above average, they will cool off around midweek. This weather pattern should allow for more snowmaking overnight and potentially on Tuesday and/or Wednesday during a part of the day. I wouldn’t be surprised if Abasin or Loveland opens in about one week, but I think the more probable scenario is for an opening during the third week of October.

Looking at the chance for storms, I don’t see a whole lot of excitement here in Colorado for about one more week.

A weak storm kept the southern mountains cloudy on Sunday with rain below about 11,000 feet and snow flakes at the higher elevations.

After a dry start to Monday, all mountains could see showers from Monday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon as a strong storm passes well to our north. Temperatures should cool on Tuesday into Wednesday, so there should be a few inches of snow at higher elevations, above about 11,000 feet.

Showers could stick around on Thursday as well, then Friday through most of the weekend should be mostly dry for most mountains. I can’t rule out a few weekend showers, but again, the storm track will stay to our north.

You can see in the following maps that the best chance for precipitation and snowfall will stay to our north and west during the next week.

Our next chance of for a significant storm should arrive around October 19th (plus or minus a day or two). The longer range models do show more storminess in late October and early November, so I am cautiously optimistic that the fun will begin later this month:-)

And now, it’s announcement time!

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The 80's Ski Party is back - Friday, October 21st!

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Thanks for starting your week off by reading the Colorado Daily Snow, and check back for more updates this week!

JOEL GRATZ

About Our Forecaster

Joel Gratz

Founding Meteorologist

Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.

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